REVIEW: Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

After the great success that was Curse Of The Black Pearl and even though it ended great enough and that story was told, Dead Man’s Chest didn’t exactly need to be made and they were my exact thoughts before I saw this. However, it actually turned out to be a very enjoyable film that almost became as great as the first film did. The best thing about Dead Man’s Chest in my opinion is that to begin with, we thought it was like an unnecessary money-grubber so to speak but as the film progressed, it actually became like a franchise and looked like there needed to be another build-up finale which is exactly what we got.

It was brilliant how the makers added some older parts in the dialogue of the predecessor and how it became a totally different kind of story at the same time with different characters and even more adventures. Pretty much everything in the category of production such as the budget, effects amongst others in Dead Man’s Chest was exactly what The Curse Of The Black Pearl had but higher. The effects in the film are just absolutely incredible! There are many moments in the film that has live-action/CGI together, motion-capture (actions of a person added to visual effects) and then obviously ones with no visual effects at all and was almost like basic filmmaking (but that was rarely the case).

At the time of Dead Man’s Chest‘s release, Johnny Depp really was in everybody’s good books after his outstanding performance in Curse Of The Black Pearl and other films in between such as Marc Forster’s Finding Neverland as Sir James Matthew Barrie and Tim Burton’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory as Willy Wonka. His return as Captain (yes, definitely Captain now) Jack Sparrow was, as predicted, a magnificent one! Because of his truly great performances as the character, we can truly tell that he takes great pleasure playing Cap’n Jack. He may not have received as much recognition and credit regarding awards as his role in Curse Of The Black Pearl did but for me, he deserved just as much! At least he got a Best Actor Musical/Comedy nomination at the Golden Globes in 2006. Orlando Bloom, just like in the first film, shows that he just does not fit the Will Turner character in the slightest. I’m sorry but there is hardly anything heroic, honourable or even wise about Will. Heath Ledger was still my favourite pick for Will.

Keira Knightley, like Johnny Depp, is in everyone’s good books at the moment, also, not only because of the first Pirates Of The Caribbeanbut because of her Academy Award nomination in Pride And Prejudice for Best Leading Actress so expectations for reprising her role as Elizabeth Swann were rather high for me. Her performance was good once again but this time we saw a very different Elizabeth in this one. Elizabeth isn’t this sweet and innocent woman she was previously but now she has become a bad girl so to speak who is slowly becoming like a pirate herself especially when she gets herself more involved with Jack Sparrow on her search for Will. Davy Jones’s involvement is added to make it a more fairy tale fictional story seeing as Davy Jones is a famous fictional character in books and is mentioned in a lot of films like this. As for the performance as the actor who plays him – Bill Nighy, I thought his performance was quite disappointing because not only was the performance rather un-terrifying at times but also it became quite annoying on occasions. Why annoying? Well, Nighy kept constantly pouting, strange facial expressions and strange sounds in speech whether its in mid-sentence or the end of one. I got on my nerves quite quickly and I just think they could have found a better actor to play Davy Jones but still glad that Davy Jones was included in the film and didn’t ruin my liking for the film. Jack Davenport reprises his role as James Norrington but not Commodore this time. He is howling for Jack’s blood for ”ruining his life” when it was in fact Will. He is, like Elizabeth, slowly becoming a pirate himself until he learns of the chest and what the content of it is.

Gore Verbinski really is one of the most underrated directors in my opinion despite he has made a series of films that perhaps are the most over-hyped films that have ever been made. His work on Dead Man’s Chest as wel as At World’s End required a lot more than what was required in Curse Of The Black Pearl seeing as the duration of the film was longer, more visual effects and perhaps even more actors and crew members involved. Dead Man’s Chest perhaps isn’t as scary to watch as its predecessor but it features characters that in many ways can be very uneasy for children’s eyes such as a tribe of cannibals that does show a few parts of human flesh and skeletons, a man who cut out his own heart and put it inside a chest, a man with only one eye, a mysterious sea creature that is squid-octopus alike and destroys ships and eats the people on them amongst others but because it is a film by Disney and it wants its target audience to be everyone who sees it. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio wrote another great script together especially when the film didn’t need to be made and that a whole new story was created.

Overall, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is an absolutely awesome sequel to Curse Of The Black Pearl and honours it well and perhaps couldn’t have done so any better minus a few exceptions. It has a very excitable and rather teasing ending where the hype of At World’s End certainly arose to the highest standard (just too bad that it didn’t entirely satisfy). Dead Man’s Chest is underrated critically but really is far from underrated regarding popularity! In my opinion, it is one of the best sequels I have watched and is almost as entertaining and fun as Curse Of The Black Pearl.